Editor's Note This study led by researchers at Yale New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut, finds that many patients have unplanned hospital visits within 7 days of outpatient surgical procedures performed in hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs), often for potentially preventable reasons. The analysis included 1,135,441 outpatient surgical procedures performed at…
Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on November 4 posted the incidence of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) reported by US hospitals in 2021. The report showed that rates for four of six tracked infections had increased: Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) increased 7%, with the largest increase…
Editor's Note Intermountain Healthcare in Utah is the first health system in the state to use a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool distributed by Medtronic that helps doctors detect colorectal polyps in real time during a colonoscopy, a GlobeNewswire press release reports on November 11. The new AI technology is…
Editor's Note The American Heart Association and Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General) have partnered to create and launch a new digital health app for frontline workers, according to an Association Press release published on November 9. The Association’s Adult Cardiac Life Support app offers access to key resources, such as algorithms for…
Editor's Note There has been a significant surge of COVID-19 cases among children for 2 consecutive weeks, according to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published on November 3, Becker’s Hospital Review November 9 reports. In the first week of November, almost 30,000 children tested positive for…
Editor's Note This French study finds that persistent symptoms were still present in 10.1% of COVID-19 infected individuals at 1 year. Of 53,047 study participants analyzed, 3,972 (2,531 women) with a mean age of 50.9 years had been infected with COVID-19. Of these, 2,647 reported at least one symptom during…
Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced on November 9 that refreshed Accelerate PI Dashboard Reports are available for accredited hospitals and critical access hospitals to provide updated performance measurement data on certain quality measures. Refreshed “Other” reports contain data through the third quarter of 2021. Data in the reports comes…
Editor's Note This study from the Cleveland Clinic finds that COVID-19-positive patients have a higher risk of postoperative mortality, and risk factors should be carefully evaluated before intervention. The analysis included 2,543 patients who had 3,027 surgical procedures. About half of the patients were male with a mean age of…
Editor's Note The Joint Commission and Kaiser Permanente, on November 8, announced two winners of the 2022 Bernard J. Tyson National Award for Excellence in Pursuit of Healthcare Equity—NYC Health + Hospitals, New York, and Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women, Houston. The award recognizes healthcare organizations that led initiatives that…
Editor's Note Vials of the chemotherapy drug fludarabine could be purchased at a whole sale price of $110 last year—today, it is being sold for a much higher price, Fierce Pharma November 1 reports. One company, Areva Pharmeceuticals, increased the price to $2,736, Stat News reported on October 27. This…